Climate of Meghalaya

• Meghalaya is at the unique confluence of the Indo-Malayan, an Indo-Chinese and Indian bio-geographical region coupled with its physiographic has generated a profusion of habitats, which harbours diverse biota with high level of endemism.
• Meghalaya’s economy is closely tied to its natural-resource-base and climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water, and forestry.
• That is the reason; the state faces a major threat from the projected changes in climate.
• Crucial sectors in state like agriculture, water resources, health, sanitation, and rural development are likely to be affected by climate change.
• State’s population primarily depends on climate sensitive sectors like agriculture and forestry for livelihood.
• The highly dispersed and the vulnerable population segment of the state is poorly equipped to cope effectively with the adversities of climate change due to low capabilities, weak institutional mechanisms, and lack of access to adequate resources
• Meghalaya emerged as a full-fledged state within the union of India on 21st Jan 1972.
• It is tucked in the North East of India, covering an area of 22489 sq. km.
• The State lies within 25 degree 1’ and 26 degree 5’ North latitudes and 85 degree 49’ and 92 degree 52’ East Longitudes.
• The temperature range is approximately 2 degree centigrade to 36 degree centigrade depending upon the altitude ranging between 300 mts above mean sea level (MSL) to 2000 mts above MSL.
• Meghalaya is amongst the highest rainfall areas in the world, predominantly mountainous, lying between the Brahmaputra valley in the North and the Surma valley (Bangladesh) in the South.

 

 

Climate of Meghalaya plateau

• Climate of Meghalaya plateau is influenced by elevation and distribution of physical relief. On the basis of weather condition, the Meghalaya plateau has 4 distinct seasons:
• They are

1. The rainy season from May to early October.
2. The cool season from early October to November.
3. The cold season from December to February.
4. The warm season or hot season from March to April.

• In this period the entire plateau witness strong winds. This is due to northward migration of jet streams from the Gangetic plain to Tibetan plateau and development of low pressure in the Tibetan plateau at this time of the year.
• The western part of the Garo hills is relatively lower in elevation as compared to Khasi and Jaintia hills. Garo hills experienced higher temperature conditions and humidity from February to October. April and May are the warmest months and January is the coldest month. The nature of elevation and slope has also influenced the distribution of rainfall. The rainfall is heaviest in the south-eastern Garo hills and decreases in the central regions and in the north.
• The Khasian Jaintia hills experience a moderate climate because of higher elevation. Warm and humid conditions are prevalent in the foothills region in the south and sub-montane region in the north and central uplands. The plateau experiences a temperature of 24 degree centigrade throughout the year.
• The southern parts of the plateau have the Cherrapunji -Mawsynram region. It receives the heaviest rainfall, an annual average of 12670 mm. This is due to its location at the head of Bangladesh plains. The south west monsoon strikes these margins as it rises abruptly from the plains. The vertical movement of this moist monsoon streams precipitate heavily in the escarpment region. This type of rainfall is known as orographic rainfall.
• The Khasi and Jaintia hills receive an average of 7700 mm of rainfall and lies in the rain shadow area. Cherrapunji and Mawsynram lying about 55 Km south of Shillong receives an annual rainfall of about 14,000 mm which is the highest amount of rainfall in the world.

Climate of Meghalaya and Rainfall

• The Climate of Meghalaya varies with the altitude.
• The Climate of Meghalaya of Khasi and Jaintia Hills is uniquely pleasant and bracing.
• It is neither too warm in summer nor too cold in winter, but over the plains of Garo Hills, the Climate of Meghalaya is warm and humid, except in winter.
• True to its name, the Meghalaya sky seldom remains free of clouds.
• The average annual rainfall is about 1,150 cm.
• Flood affected areas are mostly on the low altitude areas, bordering Assam and the international border (India-Bangladesh).
• Flash floods have become a regular feature in these areas, due to massive deforestation, unchecked jhum cultivation.
• The flood water carries huge amount of hill sand, stone, logs and trees, which are deposited in agricultural fields due to inundation of banks in the foot hills, thus causing immense damage to crops.
• The key to the health of the farm sector in the state lies in the health of the forest cover in the state.
• Every peak, every square inch of the upper range of the hills need to be under mixed forest cover to protect the soil from leaching and erosion to help regulate and decrease the fury of streams and rivulets during the monsoon season.
• Vegetation also help to retain soil moisture and ooze it out during the lean winter months to balance vegetative stress caused by mono cropping in the valley; to bestow various other advantage to help maintain the fragile eco-balance.
• This will ensure continuous cultivation of crops in the farm sector.

 

 

 

Climate Change and Climate of Meghalaya

• Climate sensitivity of the state comes from the fragile-ecosystem of the region where it is located extending to about 22,429 sq. kms.
• The varied physiological features of the state and the altitudinal differences gives rise to varied types of climate ranging from near tropical to temperate and alpine which is likely to be disturbed considerably under the impact of weather variability.
• The vulnerability of the state to water-induced disasters because of its location in the eastern Himalayan periphery, fragile geo-environmental setting and economic underdevelopment is likely to poses considerable threat to the resilience of poorer and vulnerable community.
• The powerful hydrological and monsoon regime of the region, especially the Brahmaputra and the Barak (Meghna) river system which are figures out as resources to the state can also turn out to a source of vulnerability.
• Meghalaya’s economy is closely tied to its natural-resource-base and climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water, and forestry.
• Climate change as projected might result in increasing mean annual temperature, variability of rainfall pattern and seasonal shift in weather pattern which is likely to result into destructive effect on the agriculture, the mainstay vocation in the state.
• Moreover the highly dispersed and the vulnerable population segment of the state is poorly equipped to cope effectively with the adversities of climate change due to low capabilities, weak institutional mechanisms, inability to diversify to other livelihood activities and lack of access to adequate resources to enable the community to recover from climate shocks.
• The climate change action plan is thus formulated to strategize adaptation and mitigation initiative towards emission stabilization and enhancing the livelihood resilience and adaptive capacity of the poor and vulnerable section of the society.
• Climate Change is a multi-objective problem therefore the vulnerability and adaptive capacities are diverse and varies from state to state and based on several sectoral and cross sectoral parameters.
• Sectoral parameters include key sectors of the state’s economy and cross sectoral factors include
  1. Poverty
  2. Inequality and social discrimination over property rights and
  3. Access to resources
  4. Social attrition/migration,
  5. Unequal and unsustainable competition for scarce natural resources.

Rainfall variability 

• Majority of the districts of Meghalaya have experienced an increase in precipitation in the past 100 years .
• However the two western districts, West Garo Hills and East Garo Hills showed a decrease in precipitation of 3.72 mm/day and 6.85 mm/day respectively.
• This is a very high decrease and is of concern.
• The West Khasi Hills, located in the central region of the state has the highest increase in precipitation, about 6.01 mm/day.
• This is also a very high increase and may lead to flooding if the trend continues.
• The precipitation trend shows high variability with West Khasi Hills showing an increase in precipitation of 6.01 mm/day and West Garo Hills showing a decrease of 6.85 mm/day

Temperature variability

• The analysis of the meteorological measurements of temperature for Meghalaya shows a steady warming trend in both the minimum and maximum temperatures.
• The spatial pattern of minimum and maximum temperature trend over the past 100 years shows an overall increase in the region.
• The western part of the state exhibited an increase in minimum temperature (West Garo Hills, East Garo Hills) when compared to the eastern part of the state.
• The central parts of the state, West Khasi Hills, South Garo Hills, East Khasi Hills exhibited a high increase in the maximum temperature (about 1.2 degree Centigrade), when compared to Western and Eastern districts.
• Overall, the trend of last 100 years shows that an increase in minimum temperature is slightly higher in absolute terms than the increase in maximum temperature.